After a couple months of shaking things down and day sailing, we finally got away for a couple of weeks. We quickly learned about the huge currents on this coast. If you plan correctly you get a couple knot boost. If you plan wrong it's a long day. In this pic you can see the water being churned up during a current change. It sometimes instantly swings the bow up to 30 degrees.
Here's Dee enjoying healthy sailing food: Bottled water, cookies and twizzlers!
We spent almost two weeks cruising up to Nanaimo and back. The fuel system crapped out from dirt stirred up while being hauled across the continent, so we ran on jerry cans in the cockpit for most of the trip. We covered a lot of ground to get a feel for the area that you just can't get from the charts. Our stops at anchor and alongside included: Sidney Spit, Nanaimo, Maple Bay, Ganges, Port Browning and Sidney Spit.
Here we're entering Dodd Narrows, following a long line of south bound boats rushing through during slack water at the turn of the tide.
One has to always keep an eye out for tugs towing barges and for the ever-present BC Ferries.
On the return trip we stopped again at Sidney Spit. This time we hiked out and around the light house. It's a great spot and only $10 per night for a mooring ball.
It was a beautiful evening with the promising red sky. We went to bed early and left at 0700 to catch the ebbing currents and knock a couple hours off the trip back to Esquimalt.
